Eraser holder



May 24, 1932. CHESLER 1,859,433

' ERASER HOLDER Filed Oct. 18, 1930 jsz'aar fies/er INVENTOR Patented May 24, 1932 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE ISIDOR CHESLER, OF WEST ORANGE, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOR TO EAGLE PENCIL COM- PAN Y, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., A CORPORATION OF DELAWARE ERASER HOLDER Application filed October 18, 1930. Serial No. 489,545.

This invention relates to a device for supporting an eraser.

Among the objects of this invention is to provide an eraser supporting device enabling the removal of an eraser, at will, but precluding the possibility of the accidental removal of the eraser.

It has been the practice to mount an eraser in a sleeve at the end of a pencil by pierczng or crimping the sleeve in such a manner as to frictionally engage the pencil and the eraser. In this type of mounting the eraser is permanently engaged and the usefulness of the pencil as a mount for an eraser is terminated when the eraser is worn down to the edge of the sleeve. For mechanical pencils, especially, it is desirable that the eraser may be replaced when worn. For permitting this, the eraser has been mounted in a socket adapted to frictionally engage the inner wall of a sleeve or ferrule mounted upon the end of a pencil. While provision was made for removably engaging the eraser in the socket member it often happened that the socket and eraser accidentally became separated from the supporting sleeve. Most frequently this result followed because the eraser was so large that it had a tendency to wedge it self and its socket out of the supporting sleeve or, because of laxity in observing manufacturing tolerances, the supporting sleeve was too large or the eraser was too small to afford the proper frictional relation between the socket and the sleeve.

It is among the objects of my invention to provide an eraser supporting sleeve having provisions for permitting the ready removal and replacement of an eraser, but, at the same time, being adapted to obviate all of the dis advantages of the commonly known type of device referred to hereinabove. My device may not be rendered useless because of lack of adherence to manufacturing tolerances in its production. The present lnvention permits the use of several reloadings of erasers taken at random from different sources without having regard to the possibility that all of such erasers may not be of the same dimension.

Other objects and incidental advantages of the invention will be pointed out hereinafter in the specification and claim.

In the drawings:

Fig. l isan outside view in elevation of a pencil equipped with the invention.

ig. 2 is an enlarged longitudinal section of the eraser supporting device shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is an elevation with part of the sleeve broken away.

Fig. 4 is a plan of the socket in which the eraser is'mounted.

The device for supporting the eraser comprises a sleeve 10 which is fitted upon the upper end of a pencil 11. This sleeve preferably is made of metal and may have a crosssectional shape to conform with the crosssectional shape of the end of the pencil; it being more convenient to make the sleeve cylindrical, such construction is generally used. An inexpensive manner of manufacturing involves attaching the sleeve to the end of the pencil .by friction, although it could be attached by perforating the metallic sleeve and causing prongs to engage the pencil. However, in those types of mechanical pencils in which it is desirable to remove the sleeve from the end of the pencil a frictional relation sutfices.

In the mechanical pencil illustrated, the upper end of the pencil constitutes a head 12 which must be turned for advancing the lead within the pencil and this is usually turned by taking hold of the sleeve. In such a pencil, to insure that no slippage may take place between the sleeve 10 and the head 12, ridges such as 13 may be provided in the head. The

sleeve or ferrule 10 may be beaded, if de-- sired as shown at 14 or in any other manner suit'a le for the purpose of providing rigidity to the sleeve. The .upper end of the sleeve has a bead 15 impressed therein with its concave surface on the inner side, to which reference will be made hereinafter.

The socket for the eraser consists of a base 16 from which extend a plurality of arms 17, 18 and 19. These arms have rounded outer surfaces, Fig. 4-, for engaging the inner surface of the upper end of the sleeve. Preferably, the socket is made from some resilient for the purpose 0 metal which will ermit flexing of the arms Eadjusting themselves for fitting within the end of the sleeve. Any number of these arms which might be found desirable could be used so long as sufiicient flexing thereof would be possible to permit contacting relation between the arms and the inner surface of the sleeve. At least one of the arms and preferably all of the arms are provided with a ridge adapted to engage the concavity of the bead 15 when the socket is in place within the sleeve, as illustrated in Figs. 2 and 3.-

The head 15 on the sleeve and the ridges 20 on the socket constitute means cooperating to maintain the socket and sleeve in assembled relation. Whatever form may be given to such means the purpose thereof is to provide a relation between the sleeve and socket permitting the ready removal and replacement of an eraser, but preventing unexpected or undesired separation of these two members for any reason whatsoever. It is apparent that'the form of the socket may be altered and the numberof beads and ridges may be varied while at the same time accomplishing the same result accomplished by a single bead and engaging ridge.

It is an advantage to permanently aflix the socket to the eraser and in order to accomplish this fprongs 21 are provided at the end of each 0 the arms 17, 18, and 19. These prongs are normally embedded within the eraser 22, Fig. 2. It is apparent that the socket and the eraser may be. sold as a replacement and as an article of manufacture separate from the pencil and its sleeve.

The relation of the ridges 20 and the concavity ofthe bead 15 is such that when the eraser and socket is inserted in the end of the sleeve the arms 17 18 and 19 will be flexed radially toward the axis of the eraser against the compression of the eraser as the sleeve and socket are being assembled and the ridges 20 pass the narrow dimension of the sleeve. However, as soon as the socket member has been inserted in the sleeve to such a distance as to permit the ridges to engage the concavity of the bead 15 the resilient effort of the rubber will operate to spread the arms 17 18 and 19 andforce the ridges into place within the cavity of head 15. The

locked relation obtained is such as to prevent shape of the retaining bead may be varied as likewise the number and shape of the ridges or crimps provided in the arms of the socket and, therefore, I do not wish to be limited to the single construction illustrated.

I claim:

An eraser holder comprising two separable units, one unit being open at one end and having its other end adapted to seat at the end of a pencil, said unit comprising a metallic sleeve having in the vicinity of its open end an internal circular groove formed by a hollow bead extending outwardly from the main portion of the sleeve, and the other unit being an eraser carrying unit, said last named unit being a socket member made from sheet metal having a center part and arms extending therefrom and so folded that its center is at one end of the eraser which it carries and its arms extend from its center along the side of the eraser, said arms being resilient and provided with ridges in circular alignment for engaging the circular groove of said sleeve to hold the two units in fixed relation when engaged, but permitting disengagement of the two units by forcing the socket and eraser from the sleeve in a longitudinal direction, and prongs extending from said arms and bent to enter the eraser.

In testimony whereof I hereto afi'ix my signature.

ISIDOR CHESLER.

While I have disclosed the preferred em- 

